A typical deep-fat fryer will include a fryer vat containing a heated bath of cooking oil. The cooking oil is adapted to receive baskets of food products such that the food products will be immersed within and cooked by the heated cooking oil. Such fryers include a heat exchanger, which may take the form of in vat fire tubes and associated burners, with combusted gases being passed therethrough to heat the oil.
To extend the useful life of the cooking oil, it is a common practice to filter the particulate food matter from the cooking oil to minimize the carbonization of such food matter within the cooking oil. Various configurations of filtering systems in which oil is drained from the vat into a pan, tub or other below unit containment vessel and then passed through a filter have been provided, with a pump used to return oil to the fryer vat after the oil has been filtered.
The cleaning process for fryer vats typically involves a “boil-out” process in which the vat is filled with a mixture of oil and vinegar and the heating system of the fryer is run to produce a boiling of the mixture, which in turn cleans the vat. Once the boil-out process is completed, the mixture must be removed from the vat, preferably drained without leaving any significant amount of the mixture in the unit and without running the mixture through the pump, as that may degrade the pump/motor assembly causing early failure. Typically, oil in the vat is drained into the pan, tub or other below unit containment vessel of the oil filtering system prior to the boil-out. Upon completion of the boil-out, including removal of the cleaning mixture, the oil in the vessel is returned to the vat. Since the oil is held in the below unit vessel during boil-out, the below unit vessel is not available for draining of the cleaning mixture. It would be desirable to provide a fryer that facilitates removal or draining of the boil-out cleaning mixture.